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A budding autocrat EDITORIAL 10/18/2011

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A budding autocrat

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
10/18/2011
What end does the Palace intend to achieve in pursuing the withholding not only of the judiciary’s budget but those of constitutional commissions as well, and whose fiscal autonomy is all expressly guaranteed in the Charter?

The Supreme Court (SC), the Office of the Ombudsman, the Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Audit and the Commission on Elections all received the Palace assault on their independence when it declared that allocations for unfilled positions in these bodies should revert to the National Treasury.

For the SC alone, that Malacañang-sponsored provision in the 2012 budget will mean P2 billion being slashed from its allocations next year..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111018com1.html

Idiocy at work FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 10/18/2011

Idiocy at work

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
10/18/2011
Ripley’s should really go for this one: We do have a House of Representatives that proudly abdicates its power of the purse, and acts as the Malacañang tenant orders it to act, which means strictly obeying the President’s diktat.

What the House leaders who don’t see farther than their current partisan nose, is that the conditions they insist on in the matter of the use of the judiciary and other constitutional offices’ hiring funds not only being returned to the National Treasury or general fund, which can then be utilized by Malacañang as it pleases, but also the fact that the high court is being ordered by the House — on instructions from the Palace — to report to Malacañang on how the funds are being spent.

What is not being realized by these Noynoy House puppets is the fact that such conditions, if passed as law and not declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (SC), will also have to apply to Congress — both the House and the Senate — on their use of the funds, along with their leaders’ report to Malacañang on how the funds were spent..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111018com2.html

Blatant state takeover behind EU and US Libyan operation

Blatant state takeover behind EU and US Libyan operation


Having taken over Libya, NATO exposed its hypocrisy towards protecting civilian lives, letting the revolutionary forces to shell loyalist cities and assault them despite great losses among civilian population.


­

For over two days now, Libya's interim rulers have been waging one of the biggest assaults yet on the most-important remaining Gaddafi strongholds, the cities of Sirte and Bani Walid.

Libyan revolutionary forces claim they have seized parts of convention centre, which served as a key base for Gaddafi loyalists in his hometown of Sirte.

They say most of the town is under their control now, but still face fierce resistance from loyalist fighters.
Thousands of people have left Sirte, but many remain behind, meaning there is a high risk of civilian casualties..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/eu-us-libya-nato-393/

Of flying fire trucks NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 10/18/2011

Of flying fire trucks

NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
10/18/2011
We used to have only one driver. I shared him with the children, and since they pretty much took the school bus to and from school, I had most of the driver’s services to myself, marketing, doing the groceries, going all the way to Villalobos in Quiapo to buy laces and zippers for home sewing, and on top of all that, get on with my extra-curricular activities such as theater and opera rehearsals. Sig, my husband, drove our other car. But when we’d go out for dinner, he still wouldn’t ask for the driver, he’d matter-of-factly go behind the wheel, honk the car horn some, and go: “Hoy, tayo na, aba!” As did most the fathers in typical two-car households of before.

There just wasn’t need for a third car, in the past. In Makati, for instance, there used to be more parking spaces than there were cars and establishments. A family man could easily take his brood to eat out, drop them outside whatever restaurant, park the car, and seat himself with wife and kids in time to place his order. He wouldn’t even be missed.

Times have changed, and how. The padre de familia asks wife or oldest child to order him a soup and a salad for his first course while he parks, and oftentimes sits down to what’s grown cold in the kabisera reserved for him. A few more similar almost-missed meals and he hires a driver, who’ll be either good or bad, but that’s another story..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111018com4.html

Institutionalized exaggeration AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 10/18/2011

Institutionalized exaggeration

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW
Ken Fuller
10/18/2011

Even before reading Herrera’s defense, I would have sided with Ronquillo, and nothing in Herrera’s column convinces me that I would have been wrong to do so. For a start, having stated that many who write about the labor movement have little understanding of it, he goes on to write of both the TUCP’s affiliation to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and its links to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). It seems to have slipped Herrera’s memory that when the ITUC was formed in 2006, the ICFTU ceased to exist.

Coverage by CBAs, says Herrera, is not the only measure of trade union membership and, indeed, not all CBAs are registered with the Department of Labor. Okay, let’s be generous and hypothesize that the TUCP has 230,000 members covered by CBAs and that the other labor centers account for the remainder. This has two implications. First, because many of the registered CBAs actually pertain to non-TUCP unions, it follows that many of those not registered must be those of TUCP affiliates. If this is so, and as Herrera agrees that all CBAs should be registered, can’t the TUCP do something about this?.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111018com5.html

New breed of ‘conquistadors’ invade Cebu INSIDE CONGRESS charlie manalo 10/18/2011

New breed of ‘conquistadors’ invade Cebu

INSIDE CONGRESS
charlie manalo
10/18/2011
While the Aquino administration has busied itself in “digging up the dirt” of the previous administration in its unrelenting persecution of the latter, it had totally forgotten the plight of other people whom it has vowed to serve.

This apathy of the Aquino administration had prompted a group of Cebu-based businessmen to band themselves together in a group, calling themselves AGAINST, short for Anti-Graft Advocates Indignant to Saboteurs and Tax cheaters.

This economic watchdog is calling on concerned government authorities, particularly Congress, to look into a reported anomaly whereby well-connected legitimate real estate developers are bribing persons in authority and are engaged in tax evasion.

Describing these real estate developers as a new breed of “conquistadors” that has landed in the beautiful island of Cebu, AGAINST said the vulture-like syndicates employ bribery, corruption and deceit in plundering and ravaging the “Queen City of the South.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111018com6.html

Grace of God plus goodwill of man VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 10/18/2011

Grace of God plus goodwill of man

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
10/18/2011
So there is a new man named to become the Archbishop of Manila. So there are questions raised and speculations made about the future of the Archdiocese of Manila. So there are hopes and fears on the vision-mission of the Church in the Philippines — considering that the CBCP too is going to have a new President next year.

Questions: What will the Archbishop-elect of Manila do? How would the Archdiocese of Manila fare under his pastoral leadership? What is in store for the Church in the Philippines as far as the administrative stewardship of incoming CBCP President in concerned?

Answers in particular: The incoming Archbishop of Manila is wise and prudent, knowledgeable and competent, humble, kind and prayerful. He has a well-deserved Doctorate in Theology. He successfully occupies responsible positions in the local Church. The Archdiocese of Manila will be then in good hands. Its real and genuine assets are the millions of remarkable lay people, religious men and women plus an able and dependable clergy. As a whole, the Church in the Philippines cannot be but going toward the right and proper direction as fortified by faith and guided by reason. The CBCP will be well and alive, active and proactive, especially in the realm of ethics and morals in Philippine society..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111018com7.html

Banks ask SC to stop 20% tax on PEACe bonds By Benjamin B. Pulta 10/18/2011

SOLONS EYE NEW PROBE ON ANOMALOUS DEAL

Banks ask SC to stop 20% tax on PEACe bonds

By Benjamin B. Pulta 10/18/2011

Some of the country’s biggest banks sought the Supreme Court’s (SC) intervention in issuing an order to restrain the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) from imposing a 20 percent final withholding tax on the Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificate Bonds or the so-called PEACe bonds 10 years late and when the government debt papers are scheduled for payout today, a move which could mean potential losses of income amounting to P5 billion for bond investors.

Banks involved in the float are asking the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop Malacañang from imposing and collecting a 20 percent final withholding tax (FWT) on P35 billion worth of government bonds which will mature today.

The banks noted that the government had assured investors including them that the income derived from these bonds are exempt from 20 percent tax under section 27 of the National Internal Revenue Code.
The banks’ argument got support from Sen. Edgardo Angara saying whatever were the defects in the issuance of the bonds, these remained an obligation of the government..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111018hed1.html

Palace slams Marcos’ claim on Cory atrocities By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 10/18/2011

Palace slams Marcos’ claim on Cory atrocities

By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 10/18/2011

Malacañang yesterday disputed Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos’ charge that President Aquino should apologize for the atrocities committed during the presidency of his mother, Cory, which includes the gruesome Mendiola massacre that killed 13 farmers and had asked the United States to bomb Camp Aquinaldo to flush out rebel soldiers in the failed 1989 coup attempt, saying that the senator and son of former strongman Ferdinand Marcos should go back in history and prove his allegations.

In a press briefing Monday, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Senator Marcos has no basis in making his claims and insisted that the”administration under Cory Aquino had no state policy on the oppression of human rights,” while proof of human rights atrocities during the Marcos regime has been established by the courts.

Lacierda said that the former President did not have a policy of “systematic repression” of human rights “unlike her predecessor,” referring to former President Ferdinand Marcos..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111018hed2.html

Murder of priest alarms Italian envoy, wants killer prosecuted By Michaela P. del Callar 10/18/2011

Murder of priest alarms Italian envoy, wants killer prosecuted

By Michaela P. del Callar 10/18/2011

An Italian Catholic priest who spent three decades working in the violence-plagued southern Philippines was shot dead inside his church compound yesterday, his superiors said.

Fausto Tentorio was the third member of the Vatican-run Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions to have been killed since 1985 on Mindanao, a vast island home to Muslim separatists, al-Qaeda-linked militants and other armed groups.

Police said an unknown gunman shot Tentorio, 59, three times at his PIME parish in the remote farming town of Arakan yesterday morning as he got into his car.

They said the assailant escaped and did not yet have any idea about the motive for the murder..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111018hed6.html

Koko files poll fraud raps vs GMA, FG, spares Migz By Benjamin B. Pulta 10/18/2011

Koko files poll fraud raps vs GMA, FG, spares Migz

By Benjamin B. Pulta 10/18/2011

Criminal charges for election fraud have been filed by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III against former President Gloria and now Pampanga Rep. Macapagal-Arroyo, formert First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, among others.

Pimentel accused the former first couple of conspiring with other former officials, including former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, presidential spokesman Gabriel Claudio and his executive assistant Bong Serrano, and regional poll director lawyer Michael Abas, in rigging poll results in Mindanao in favor of the former administration’s senatorial bets.

Pimentel sought their indictment for electoral sabotage under Republic Act 9369 (Amended Automated Election Law)..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111018nat1.html

Keppel Shipyard found non-compliant on safety standards By Angie M. Rosales 10/18/2011

Keppel Shipyard found non-compliant on safety standards

By Angie M. Rosales 10/18/2011

The Singapore-based Keppel Subic Shipyard, the employer of the six Filipino workers who died in an accident while working on a container ship in Subic, Zambales some two weeks ago, was found to be non-compliant of the country’s safety standards.

Labor officials, in relaying the matter to Senate probers yesterday during the initial investigation of the incident, said the company was reportedly in rush to complete simultaneously contracted job orders, compromising apparently the safety and health measures needed at the site.

“Simultaneous repair works were done to fast-track the completion of the project because of the approaching deadline. This led to inadequate safety and health measure on the job being done at the site,” Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Undersecretary Lourdes Trasmonte told the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resource development..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111018nat2.html

Makati wins national search for best local disaster council 10/18/2011

Makati wins national search for best local disaster council

10/18/2011
Makati City, through the Makati Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC), has won the 2011 national search for the country’s Gawad KALASAG (Kalamidad at Sakuna Labanan, Sariling Galing ang Kaligtasan) in the highly urbanized city category, keeping the title for two straight years now.

Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay congratulated MDRRMC for its efforts in making Makati the best in disaster preparedness and mitigation. He said that the city government’s disaster resiliency program and management has four components which are mitigation, preparedness, response and rehabilitation.

“Rehabilitation may be the most difficult aspect since we cannot really know the actual impact of the worst disaster the city may experience. But with preparedness and mitigation, the impact of disaster and calamities can be dampened, and this is the thrust of my administration,” Mayor Binay said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111018met2.html

Valenzuela, Koranadal ink pact for cooperation 10/18/2011

Valenzuela, Koranadal ink pact for cooperation

10/18/2011
The cities of Valenzuela and Koronadal have forged a sisterhood agreement which would certainly foster favorable relations and cooperation between the two local government units and its constituents, said officials of the two cities over the weekend.

City Mayors Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian of Valenzuela and Peter Miguel of Koronadal of South Cotabato signed the memorandum of agreement (MoA) at The Farm Convention Center in the province last week during the latter’s 1st Negosyo Festival.

The sisterhood agreement stemmed out of a common desire of both cities to “devote unquantifiable concern and attention in promoting general welfare of their constituents,” the officials said.

This was solidified through a resolution approved by the City Council of Koronadal last Sept. 19 and a counterpart measure authored by Valenzuela Councilor Marlon Alejandrino, which was passed paving the way toward Valenzuela’s first sister city in the country..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/

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